Pincher Manguari

(1924 to 1986)

Source: Northern Territory Library and Information
Service

Pincher Manguari was a Gurindji man who lived in the Victoria
River area in the Northern Territory and had worked on Vestey
cattle stations. With Vincent Lingiari, Lupna Giari and others he
talked to Frank Hardy about their conditions on these stations.
Pincher was unhappy about the wages and the fact that they were
paid differently to the white stockmen. He was also dissatisfied
with the food rations they received and recognised that their
illiteracy made them vulnerable when it came to what people were
owed. According to Frank Hardy, Pincher raised the possibility of
the Gurindji being able to get the Vesteys to leave and regain
control of what the people thought of as their land.

Pincher was one of the signatories to the Petition to the
Governor General which Frank Hardy and Bill Jeffrey drafted, based
on what the people had told them that they wanted to say. This
petition asserted that 'morally the land is ours and should be
returned to us'.

Petition to Lord Casey, Governor-General of Australia from four
Gurindji spokesmen, April 1967